Interview with Patrick Schenk: Melitta and Manchester United global partnership

The Melitta Group and world-renowned football club Manchester United have recently agreed on expanding their partnership.

To find out more, Food and Drink Network UK recently spoke with Patrick Schenk, Director Global Sports Partnership at Melitta. He talks about the global partnership between Melitta and Manchester United, highlighting the success of the collaboration and plans to create a global initiative:

Melitta became the official coffee partner for Manchester United in November last year and, since then, the partnership has gone from strength to strength, exceeding all our expectations.

After the first season, Melitta has surpassed its KPIs in terms of enhancing brand awareness and brand image for Melitta in the UK, Germany and Ireland. The partnership with Manchester United provides a worldwide platform to showcase Melitta as specialists in professional hot beverage preparation for both individuals and system catering.

Melitta is the exclusive coffee brand served throughout Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium where over 200 Melitta coffee and ‘bean to cup’ machines have been set up in the executive club boxes and catering areas. Melitta has also played a major role in the refurbishment of the Red Café, where Melitta products are also sold.

Since the partnership began, there has been a considerable increase in coffee consumption at the Club, amongst staff, visitors, hospitality guests, fans and players, many of whom have been particularly impressed with the excellent quality and delicious taste of Melitta coffee.

Following the success of the partnership, the Melitta Group and Manchester United have now agreed to expand their partnership to global status. This will enable Melitta to further engage with the club’s 659 million global followers. As the club´s official coffee partner, Melitta will start to implement various communication and marketing projects with the club around the world.

Patrick explains:

Social media communication has and will continue to play a significant role in promoting the partnership between Melitta and Manchester United. Jointly developed videos demonstrating the coffee machines and showing the players enjoying Melitta coffee at Old Trafford have attracted numerous consumers to date.

The success of the Melitta brand at the Club has been phenomenal and we will soon be creating a collection of Manchester United and Melitta branded coffee machines, coffee beans, cups and other coffee preparation items which will be available for fans to purchase later this season.

Speaking about the future of the collaboration with one of the most successful football clubs in the world, Patrick concludes:

The thriving partnership between Melitta and Manchester United will be escalated to a global status and we look forward to increasing our media presence with the Club worldwide. This will allow us to showcase the Melitta coffee experience to an international audience.